The Guardian view on the Pope and Claude: Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI is right to put humanity first | Editorial

In calling for regulation of the digital revolution, and foregrounding human dignity, the pontiff has contributed to a crucial ethical debate When the present pope adopted his regnal name, he explained the choice by reference to a 19th-century predecessor who used the papacy to address the great social question of his time. In the 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), Pope Leo XIII analysed the social forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution, and outlined principles for a just set